While working in the Support Organization we come across various stages but we never know where are we standing. If you are a New/Existing Manager/Head setting up a Department will come across the Tactical and Strategic stage.
The word Tactical means short term i.e. the beginning Level.
Reactive Stage:
New Support: From the picture itself you can see that Customer
Support Agent doesn’t have any clue about how the Support Department is being
operated. Whenever a new Customer Support Department is evolved it falls under
this category.
No Support Centre Strategy: At the Reactive stage
companies don’t have a clear strategy about how to provide support services
to their client (Example: 1) What support Channel should be selected to serve the
customer like Email, Phone, Chat or Social Media. Many start-up companies at
this stage provides Email Support. 2) They are also unclear about Support
operating hours, so normally they start by providing a 9 x 5 Email Support.? 3)
They are also not sure about what Support Technology to be used, so they either
use an email account or a basic Email Support tool to serve the client?
Operating on Standard business hours: At this stage, companies are at the start-up & growth trend, so they don’t spend enough
money on Support Center as they consider Support as a Cost center, and all their
budgets are spent in designing and improving the Product. So, in order to save money, Customer Support is initially provided by the Product Team instead of having a
dedicated Support Team. So, they just provide support as per their work
availability like a 9 x 5 Support. In some organizations, you will find the
Founder of the company managing the Customer Support Team at this stage.
No Tiers Set up: At this stage, the Customer Support Department is not
structured and No Tiers setup i.e. Internal Support Team like Customer Service
Team, Techsupport Team & Billing Team So, all the inquiries coming to
Customer Support is handled by a single person.
No Process in place: At the Reactive Stage no Customer Process is defined
& documented to run the Customer Support process effectively.
Highly labor driven: As the Customer Support Department is not structured
there is no process to determine the number of people required to support the customer
& no strategy is in place to scale up the support team due to Cost
constraints. Hence the existing employees are asked to stretch beyond their
login hours.
Proactive Stage:
Support has been in existence for some time: At this Stage Customer
Support has evolved from a Reactive Stage to a Proactive stage i.e. the
Customer Support Team has been serving the client for a long-time example a year has passed or maybe a Quarter.
Develop Operational Plan: At this Stage, many Organizations hires a Customer
Support Manager/ Head of the Department to manage the whole Customer Support
Lifecycle. So, an Operational plan about how to operate the Customer Support
Department within the given budget is developed by the Customer Support Head and
gets executed with the help of Support Customer Support Team Leader as they
drive the front-end Support employees.
Implementation of Effective Technology: At this Stage an
appropriate Support Technology is selected ensuring that short term &
long-term Business & Support Goal is achieved.
Started Tracking the KPI’s: At this stage some
basic Key Performance Indicator about Customer Support Department is tracked
like Number of cases handled by Support Team every day, Number of Customers
satisfied with the Support Team, Average Reply time on Chat/Email.
Extended Support hours to meet the demand: At this stage the
Support Availability to serve the Customer is extended by the organization to
meet the client expectation (Example: Earlier in Reactive stage only 9 x 5
Support was provided however at this stage organization might extend the
support hours to 9 x 7.
Staff is more involved in professional communities to develop skills: At this stage, The organization provides training to Customer Support Employees to improve their
skillset. (Example a
The certification Training program is arranged i.e. Training &
Certification for newly promoted Support Team Leader about how to coach &
manage the Front End employees, Training & Certification program for
Support Manager about how to manage the Customer Support Team Leaders & its
Team. Training & Certification for existing Employees about how to improve
their skills in the existing Roles like how to manage the Customer Support
Interaction more effectively. So, at this stage Support Employees are given
professional level of training to develop skills
Set up Survey Mechanism to capture VOC: At this stage, The organization has set up a Mechanism to measure the quality deliverable of
Customer Support Team i.e. by sending a Survey after every interaction is
handled by the Customer Support Agent this can be through Email, Phone, or Chat.
Set up Knowledge Database: At this stage, The organization creates Internal & External Knowledgebase. i.e (Public facing
KB articles in which all the know issues & resolution are documented in
detail, so that customers can proactively find the information using
Self-service base. Also, the External Knowledge Article is written in detail for
Customer Support Employees, so that they can find the correct information to
support the customers.
Limited Integration to Change, Release & Problem Management: Change, Release & Problem The management process is taken care of by the Product Team. To support the customer
correctly many a times Customer Support Department will need access to Change,
Release & Problem Management process. At this stage, limited access is
given.
Set up SLA & OLA: At this Stage organization works under SLA & OLA
guidelines. SLA means Service Level
Agreement between the End-user and the company (Example: Any chat coming to the support team should be answered within 30 sec & to be resolved in an Hour) OLA
means Operating Level Agreement between Customer Support Department & other
stakeholder in the company like the Product Team (Example: Case escalated to
the Product Team must be resolved within 2 Hours) OLA is designed is such a way
that there is a buffer time kept in consideration to meet the SLA.
1. What is the Support Maturity Level of your current Support Organization?
2.
TIPS:
Want to learn in detail about how to assess Support Center Maturity stages read the book How to Establish & Manage Customer Support Department
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